Negative results from a photographer

The littlest players in the Colonie Girls Softball program dash around the town’s Lisha Kill Sports Complex with nary a care about how much a batting helmet might muss their hair, while older girls learn the joy of catching a fly ball and sharing high-fives as a teammate crosses home plate.

Their parents can’t stretch these days forever, of course, and that’s why a visit from a professional photographer on opening day is so welcome.

“It’s a snapshot in time,” said Linda Bille, a member of the Colonie Girls Softball board of directors and the mother of a player.

That also is why the volunteer board members and parents are so steamed that the guy they hired to take individual and team photos in April, Robert F. McCrae of Waterford, has failed to produce many of the orders.

“It’s not so much the money. It’s the memory that we were going to have of this season,” said Angela Youngs, whose husband, Tim, just wrapped up his first season coaching a team that included their 9-year-old daughter, Lily.

Angela Youngs ordered a “white board” that was to feature a picture of Lily in her batting stance on one side and space for notes on the other. The Youngs family also was looking forward to receiving prints of the team photo of players and coaches.

The Youngses are among at least a dozen families Bille said are still awaiting their picture orders, which include traditional prints and photo products such as trading cards showing individual girls in uniform with bats and gloves.

“It’s the kind of thing that parents love,” Bille said.

At the same time, the league also is without the photo plaques it ordered from McCrae for the team sponsors. Businesses pay $500 each to sponsor one of the 21 teams that participated in the Colonie program this spring and summer, and the league traditionally gives each sponsor a plaque featuring a photo of the sponsored team in uniform as a thank-you.

The league’s volunteers have been pleading with McCrae, who operates as “TTS” or “Take the Shot Photography,” since June to deliver the promised products.

According to his contract, he was to deliver the photos within four weeks of when they were taken. Bille said most photos were taken on April 30, and a few were shot on a makeup date in early May.

I tried several times to reach McCrae or his office assistant last week, by telephone and by email, without receiving a response. My colleague, Yi-Ke Peng, spoke to McCrae while I was on vacation last month, when Bille first wrote to ask for our help.

At that time, McCrae said he was preparing to mail the photos. His explanation for the delay was that his assistant had been on vacation since late June and that he had been hospitalized for spinal surgery.

His assistant did email league organizers on June 16, apologizing “wholeheartedly” for the delays and lack of returned calls. She said McCrae was in the hospital with a severe infection that had required “another spinal surgery.”

“I recognize that this is no excuse and I have contacted our lab on this extreme delay… they have advised me the photos should arrive this week,” the assistant wrote. She also asked for telephone numbers to contact parents for whom addresses were not provided and said the league would be notified when the plaques arrived.

I am sorry to say this sounds like an all-too-familiar runaround. If McCrae cannot deliver the photos and plaques, Bille said the league’s volunteers will submit a complaint to the state attorney general’s office and file a case in small claims court seeking their money back — though they’d prefer to have the photos and plaques, and they’re willing to forego the $500 McCrae promised for a team sponsorship.

Meanwhile, league leaders are trying to determine more precisely who did not receive their orders — the current estimate is between 15 and 20 families — and how much they paid, so the league can reimburse them. Bille said she also is pricing new sponsor plaques, which would have to be made without the team pictures.

The total cost could approach $1,000, and that would put a big dent in the league treasury, which the volunteers use to fund field maintenance and other operating costs.

“That’s huge. That’s a pile of dirt for one of the fields,” she said, but “people paid money. We have to make good on that.”

Sadly, McCrae isn’t the first missing photographer I’ve written about as the Advocate.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said this March that his office has filed a lawsuit against Robert J. Mannix, who I wrote about in August 2009. Mannix operated a wedding photography business in Troy under the names Mannix Studio and Star Wedding Photography, and the lawsuit seeks $42,920 in restitution for couples who did not receive their wedding albums, $135,500 in penalties and an injunction prohibiting Mannix from operating a professional photography business unless he files a $100,000 performance bond.

I wonder how widespread this problem is. I also wonder if it might be growing as people with limited digital photo skills and no business sense seize on this type of work to try to make ends meet in a tough economy — and find themselves in over their heads.

For a little expert perspective, I consulted Mitch Wojnarowicz, a freelance photojournalist who operates a well-regarded business in Amsterdam. The bulk of his jobs are weddings and location photography for corporate clients.

In this line of work, Wojnarowicz ranks good business practices right up there with artistic and technical skills in importance.

Particularly in the case of weddings, he noted, “it’s a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity. There are no do-overs. It’s a relationship and there is zero tolerance” for photographic failures.

Wojnarowicz told me he has established extensive backup systems for his digital images and purchased liability and “errors and omissions” insurance to protect his business and his customers from the consequences, if a mishap should occur.

Colonie Girls Softball contracted with McCrae last year, but at that time, he held the local franchise for a Georgia company called TSS Photography (previously known as The Sports Section). Now, he operates under the confusingly similar TTS name and has no affiliation with TSS — though some league people initially assumed he did.

A spokeswoman for TSS in Georgia said the company terminated McCrae’s franchise in February and, unfortunately, has none of the Colonie images he snapped this year on file.

I appeal to McCrae to find some way to get the Colonie Girls Softball photos and plaques to the league’s volunteers before they have to spend money on replacement plaques and in time for distribution at the league’s softball banquet on Aug. 28.

“It’s important to the parents. I think the pictures are more important than the monetary refund,” said Bille.

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Hiring a photographer

Most of these tips were provided for hiring a wedding photographer, but also could apply in other situations:

Insist that a company identify the person who will photograph your wedding and make that part of the contract.

Do not pre-pay in full. Hold back 25 percent of the total cost.

Include due dates for specific tasks in the contract.

Check at least three references for events within the last three months.

Ask if the photographer belongs to a professional photographers association.

Ask to see proof of insurance.

Is sales tax being collected on the job? This can help identify responsible businesses.

I am personally familiar with Bob’s work and he has always been professional and reasonably priced. I had also heard of his surgery, but I am surprised by this story. I believe that with help of his assistant, family members, or transferring the job to another photographer, all this could have avoided and eliminated the unnecessary delay of three months to these children and their parents I wish Bob the best of health, and I wish these parents and volunteers a speedy resolution to this situation. My fear is that he may not have the funds to follow through on the photos and plaques. We all know how expensive medical bills are these days….